Private healthcare providers carried out significantly more NHS funded work between 2006 and 2012 than during previous years, while demand for privately funded care fell, a detailed new analysis has shown.

The report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Nuffield Trust noted that public spending on healthcare in the United Kingdom grew at a rate of 5% a year between 1997 and 2011, whereas average growth was 2.9% between 1975 and 1997.1

But while growth in private health spending, which had previously averaged 7.2% a year, slowed to just 3.8% a year between 1997 and 2011, the volume of NHS care delivered by private providers increased substantially, going up by almost £3bn (€3.5bn; $4.5bn) between 2006 and 2012.